Pembrokeshire youngsters are off to the Special Olympics
Pembrokeshire’s Special Olympics athletes are going to Leicester on Saturday 25th July to attend the Special Olympics GB and their bus will be leaving County Hall car park at 8am, with11 gymnasts, one swimmer and six coaches/escorts attending so the Pembrokeshire flag will be flying high.
Eleven gymnasts from Pembrokeshire Special Needs Gymnastics club are competing at this event as part of Team Wales; five coaches are going to support the team from PSNGC. Jean Jones – Head coach for PSNGC has been appointed as the Head Coach for the Welsh Gymnastic Team.
The Gymnasts are: Adele Bevan, Andrew Martin, Darren Briggs, Emma Martin, Jamie Bevan, Jemma Bowie-Hallam, Leah Scott, Marcus James, Rhianne Cole, Ryan Foot and Victoria Walters. The swimmer is Richard Young, who trains with Pembrokeshire Puffins.
They will all be aware of the Oath “Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt”.
Trained hard
They have all trained hard for this event, training locally and at squad sessions. The experience will be incredible from the opening ceremony – walking into “Walkers Stadium” which holds 25,000 people and we know that 400 families and friends will be there from Wales, to competing in first class sporting facilities, the moving medal ceremonies and the closing ceremony in Abbey Park.
The Special Olympics was established in Great Britain in 1978 but its origins start in the USA because Eurnice Shriver, sister of John F Kennedy, founded the Special Olympic movement in 1968.
Generous support from the community
Special Olympics and Paralympics are very different organisations, Paralympics caters for athletes at elite level ONLY, where as special Olympics caters for all ability ranges and athletes are in divisions of participants of like ability. Special Olympics GB and Special Olympics Wales is a registered charity and receives NO government funding, unlike the Olympics and Paralympics.
All this has been made possible for Pembrokeshire Athletes through very kind and generous donations from people and organisations in Pembrokeshire.
If anyone wants to wave off the group – they will leave from County Hall car park at 8am on Saturday 25th July, it would give them a special lift on their journey. Many Thanks to all who have helped to make his possible
